Digital Commons Network^™

Ritual And Religion In The Ohlone Cultural Area Of Central California, Doug Jones

Master's Theses

This thesis is an analysis of aspects of ritual and religion based upon reports from archaeological sites throughout the historical territory of the Native American peoples grouped by ethnographers under the term Ohlone, as well as other relevant sources of ethnographic, historical, and biographical information. Through research and review of recorded site documentation, as well as consultation with local archaeologists, three sites which clearly and extensively represent aspects of Ohlone religious life were identified and described in detail. This included type sites for mortuary practices, rock art, and cosmology/archaeoastronomy. The compilation and analysis of this material generated important information regarding …

Burial Chronological Sequencing Of The Colonial Maya Cemetery At Tipu, Belize Using Fluoride Ion Analysis, Nicole Musselwhite

Master's Theses

This thesis ascertains the sequence of burials using fluoride ion electrode analysis at the colonial cemetery at Tipu, Belize in order to explore demographic and other cultural effects associated with European contact. The cemetery at Tipu in west central Belize, dating from within the first century of Spanish contact, has provided one of the largest and best preserved Maya skeletal series, with over 500 burials recovered. While this series has undergone vast amounts of analysis, there has yet been an analysis conducted to view how patterns changed over time. This is of interest given the rapid culture change associated with …

Postcolonialism And The Marshallese Diaspora: Structural Violence And Health In The Marshallese Community In Springdale, Arkansas, Alexander J. Hirata

Master's Theses

Despite moving to the United States for better healthcare, among other benefits, Marshallese Compact of Free Association (COFA) migrants residing in Springdale, Arkansas continue to face similar acute health problems as Marshallese living in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), and often without access to health services. These problems include high rates of noncommunicable diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and thyroid cancer, as well as rare conditions such as Hansen’s Disease.

To research this, I studied the limited texts surrounding the Marshallese diaspora, as well as relevant bodies of literature: postcolonialism, Pacific migration theory, and global health and …

Una Legua Cuadrada: Exploring The History Of Swanton Pacific Ranch And Environs, Jeanine Marie Scaramozzino

Master's Theses

Swanton Pacific Ranch is an educational and research facility owned by the Cal Poly Corporation and managed by the Cal Poly State University (Cal Poly) College of Agriculture, Food and Environmental Sciences. Located about 180 miles north of campus and just 14 miles north of Santa Cruz, California on Highway 1, the property was first leased to and then donated to Cal Poly by the late Albert E. Smith in 1993. The rancho’s original inhabitants included Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, as well as various European immigrants and their descendants; currently, the staff, faculty, and students of Cal Poly occupy the …

Muslim Brothers Or Overstaying Guests? The Reception Of Syrian Refugees In Southeastern Turkey, Irem Karaçizmeli

Master's Theses

This thesis contextualizes the Syrian refugee issue in Turkey with an analysis of history and political discourse, and data drawn from a fieldwork conducted in Şanlıurfa, Turkey in 2015. The Islamist ruling party has staged a warm welcome for Syrian refugees. Their refugee regime, however, has remained weak in regards to law and policy. Retaining the geographical limitation stipulated in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, Turks have attempted to locate the larger issue of hosting refugees into cultural notions of ‘guesthood’ rather than a developed refugee rights framework. The fieldwork discovers the lack of …

The Interactive Effects Of Accent, Attire, And Job Status On Employment-Related Decisions, Bonnie Nguyen

Master's Theses

Using data from 207 college students, the interactive effects of an applicant’s accent (standard American English vs. Arabic), attire (no hijab vs. hijab), and job status (low vs. high) on perceived applicant characteristics (i.e., competence and warmth) and employment-related decisions (i.e., job suitability and hiring recommendation) were examined. Inconsistent with the hypotheses, results showed that an Arabic-accented and an applicant wearing a hijab were not rated as less competent and warm compared to a standard American-accented applicant and an applicant not wearing a hijab, respectively. Additionally, an Arabic-accented applicant wearing a hijab was not perceived as less competent and warm. …

"Fire And Water Imagery" In Jane Eyre 2015, Shannon O'Loughlin

Master's Theses

Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a study in contrasts. Critics have argued the implausibility of the novel, that an orphaned governess who marries her dashing employer is too far-fetched to be believed. However, a proper understanding of Jane Eyre must be based not on a sequence of events, but on the thematic form of the novel in which the signifiers relate to each other and shift throughout. Ferdinand de Saussure explains in his "Course in General Linguistics," that the mental concept one has of a word is its "signifier" (62). Charlotte Bronte relies not simply upon a sequence of events …

A Hybrid Approach To General Information Extraction, Marie Belen Grap

Master's Theses

Information Extraction (IE) is the process of analyzing documents and identifying desired pieces of information within them. Many IE systems have been developed over the last couple of decades, but there is still room for improvement as IE remains an open problem for researchers. This work discusses the development of a hybrid IE system that attempts to combine the strengths of rule-based and statistical IE systems while avoiding their unique pitfalls in order to achieve high performance for any type of information on any type of document. Test results show that this system operates competitively in cases where target information …

C'Est La Tour De Babel - Le Film Multilingue: Un Défi De La Traduction Audiovisuelle Du 21e Siècle, Alexander S. Croxton Mr.

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Ostracism And Antisocial Behavior: The Role Of Perceived Justice, Entitlement, And Anger, Christopher Jeffrey Nathanael Lustgraaf

Master's Theses

Recent research has demonstrated that antisocial behavior following a general ostracism experience is mediated by increased feelings of entitlement (Poon, Chen, & DeWall, 2013) and anger (Chow, Tiedens, & Govan, 2008). However, this prior research has failed to determine whether ostracism in general leads to antisocial behavior, or only ostracism that is perceived of as unfair or unjust. The purpose of the current study was to manipulate the perceived fairness of the ostracism experience (fair or unfair) and assess participants’ antisocial behavioral intentions (i.e., dishonest intentions). It was hypothesized that an unfair ostracism experience (compared to a fair ostracism or …

Defining Success: The Perspective Of Emerging Adults With Foster Care Experience, Brianna Lynne Anderson

Master's Theses

Youth with experience in the foster system are often more susceptible to negative outcomes in adulthood due to their high levels of cumulative risk. The present study sought out to re-define the concept of “success” from the perspective of emerging adults with experience in the foster care system and to identify patterns among the characteristics and behaviors of foster families that promote success as these young adults transition out of the foster care system and into adulthood. Participants most frequently defined “success” as achieving personal goals. Additionally, Support and Positive Identity were found to be the most influential Developmental Assets® …

A Garden Locked, A Fountain Sealed: Female Virginity As A Model For Holiness In The Fourth Century, Lindsay Anne Williams

Master's Theses

Despite centuries of Christian theologians and lay Christians alike assigning and/or accepting an entrenched misogyny in the writings of Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine, close examination of their work on its own terms and in its own time reveals that, in fact, they did not hold women in lesser esteem than men. Rather, time and again, in the writings of these Latin Doctors of the Church, women were promoted as exemplars of holiness and sanctity often in excess of their male counterparts and commonly as didactic tools used to lead their fellow Christians down a more righteous path. The following thesis …

A Qualitative Analysis Of The Therapeutic Alliance From The Perspective Of Adolescents Who Stutter, Kelli D. Riggenbach

Master's Theses

There has been research outlining the importance of the client-clinician relationship in therapeutic outcomes; however, there is a relative lack of research as to the development of the therapeutic alliance in the area of fluency therapy, particularly with adolescents. The purpose of this investigation was to learn about the perceptions of adolescents who stutter regarding characteristics of effective and ineffective speech-language pathologists as well as how these adolescents perceive their own and their speech-language pathologist’s role in the therapeutic alliance. This study addressed the following questions: Q1 How do adolescents with fluency disorders describe their role within the therapeutic alliance? …

Reviving Mesopotamia: Genocide And The Preservation Of Cultural Heritage In The Nationalist Music Of William Daniel (1903-1988), Rashel Pakbaz

Master's Theses

Once an illiterate Christian community suppressed by its Muslim neighbors, the Mesopotamian population in Persia benefitted from the American missionaries establishing schools and hospitals that helped their culture and language flourish in the late 1800s. Their survival as a people and a culture was threatened, however, when the Muslim Ottoman Empire began the Christian Genocide in Eastern Anatolia during World War I. As a survivor of these horrific events, composer William Daniel (1903-1988) felt the need to preserve and promote Mesopotamian culture through music, and as a Western trained musician, he successfully developed a nationalist style of music based on …

Ecg Classification With An Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System, Brad Thomas Funsten

Master's Theses

Heart signals allow for a comprehensive analysis of the heart. Electrocardiography (ECG or EKG) uses electrodes to measure the electrical activity of the heart. Extracting ECG signals is a non-invasive process that opens the door to new possibilities for the application of advanced signal processing and data analysis techniques in the diagnosis of heart diseases. With the help of today’s large database of ECG signals, a computationally intelligent system can learn and take the place of a cardiologist. Detection of various abnormalities in the patient’s heart to identify various heart diseases can be made through an Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System …

Criticality And Risk Assessment For Pipe Rehabilitation In The City Of Santa Barbara Sewer System, Rossi Carmelo Rossi Ii

Master's Theses

Aging sewer infrastructure is posing greater and greater risk to the health and well-being of City residents. Issues can range from pipe blockages in sewer laterals to Sanitary Sewer Overflows. This thesis develops a risk analysis method that can be used by municipalities to maintain and rehabilitate sewer assets. Risk combines the effect of Likelihood of Failure (LOF) and Consequence of Failure (COF) to perform a complete two-dimensional analysis that allows for relative comparison between different pipes in the system. The LOF rating has been equated to pipe integrity while the COF rating was related to the environmental, economic, and …

A Pilot Study Investigating Comprehension Of Driving Vocabulary In Adolescents With Language Impairment, Jessica M. Pandolfe

Master's Theses

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate if adolescents with LI are at increased risk relative to unimpaired peers at struggling to comprehend driving-related vocabulary found in driving preparation material.

Method: This study included 11 adolescents with LI and 11 adolescent controls with typical language development. Participants completed a self-developed receptive vocabulary measure, the Driving-Related Picture Vocabulary Task, which consisted of simple noun, compound noun, and simple verb driving terminology.

Results: The Driving-Related Picture Vocabulary Task was found to have strong convergent validity with the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test—Fourth Edition (Dunn & Dunn, 2007). Strong positive correlation was …

Effects Of Auditory And Visual Variability On Word Learning In Children: A Pilot Study, Kelly A. Casey

Master's Theses

For infants, acquiring vocabulary for nouns is a dynamic, complex process that involves pairing an auditory token with a visual referent. This process is computationally complex because the acoustic information produced for a verbal production of any given noun varies considerably due to factors including the person who is speaking, speaking rate, and linguistic context. Likewise, visual referents are also variable in characteristics such as size, shape, material, and color. Research suggests that variability in either the auditory or visual domains can facilitate early word learning. However, the role of simultaneous variability in these domains on noun learning remains unexplored. …

A Pilot Study Investigating The Comprehension Of Miranda Rights By Adolescents With Language Impairment, Anne Marie Lieser

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Gradient Effects Of Reading Ability On Native And Non-Native Talker Identification, Minal A. Kadam

Master's Theses

The acoustic signal of speech cues information about who is speaking in addition to a talker’s conceptual message. Recent findings indicate that these two aspects of the acoustic signal are fundamentally intertwined in the context of speech perception. For example, listeners demonstrate a native-language advantage for talker identification, which has been interpreted as evidence that phonological knowledge is recruited for talker identification. Converging evidence for this account comes from studies indicating adults with reading disability due to deficits in phonological processing show impaired talker recognition even in their native language. Other studies suggest that the influence of phonological processing on …

Effects Of Reading Ability On Lexically-Informed Letter Perception, Alexandra T. Bohner

Master's Theses

Research on perceptual learning for speech shows that lexical information can be used to modify phonological representations. Recent findings suggest that lexically-informed perceptual learning is a domain-general learning mechanism such that lexically-guided learning is also observed in the processing of printed text. The literature on lexically-informed perceptual learning has extensively investigated the nature of the change to the prelexical representation. What this literature has yet to examine, however, is how varying levels of lexical recruitment influence this learning mechanism. Here we examine this question by comparing performance on lexically-guided letter perception between two groups of readers, average readers and advanced …

The Effect Of An Intensive Oral Reading Program On Discourse In Chronic Mild Aphasia, Marilyn Elizabeth Richard

Master's Theses

Background: There is limited research specific to deficits and interventions for people with mild aphasia (PWMA), although they have the greatest potential to return to work. Discourse and reading deficits for this population are well documented and negatively impact quality of life. Two treatment programs have used oral reading to target discourse with mixed success. Neither was designed specifically for PWMA.

Aims: The primary aim of the current study was to examine the effect of an intensive oral reading program on discourse in two participants with chronic mild aphasia. Outcome was also assessed on several other measures including oral reading, …

On Sexual Violence: Indian Artists And Public Enagement, Hannah M. Kennedy

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

“Un Pueblo Tan Dulce”: Diabetes, Depression, And Obesity Syndemics In Puerto Rico, Shir Lerman

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Fixing The Failed: An Investigation Of Terrorist Organizations And State Building Capabilities, Joshua Adam Freeman

Master's Theses

This study examines the role of terrorist organizations in failed states. In particular, their ability to perform positive state-building activities that result in stability is investigated. Both terrorism and state failure present unique and serious threats to international security. However, there is very little literature concerning the positive effect terrorist organizations can have in failed states. Presented is not only an investigation of the linkages between state failure and terrorism, but also a new classification of terrorist organizations based upon their ability to state-build in failed states. These organizations are classified by their ability to provide goods and services within …

Examining The Relationship Of Demographic Variables, Media Exposure, And Motivation On Second Language Acquisition, Heidi Hines

Master's Theses

Many students in higher education settings struggle with learning a new language. It’s not uncommon for international students to need additional resources in learning to speak and write in English. A pilot study funded by Fort Hays State University implemented various English software programs, such as Rosetta Stone, and Memrise at one of their Chinese partnership universities. The English programs were given as an option to help the students during an English composition course. The current study took advantage of FHSU’s pilot study and used that opportunity to investigate additional variables related to second language acquisition. The current study does …

Examining Factors Used By Students To Select A Major In Communication Sciences And Disorders, Mackenzie Mccartney

Master's Theses

There is a shortage of practicing speech-language pathologists (SLP) and this is not improving. Within the profession, this shortage is felt mostly in a public school. This study explored factors used by graduate students to decide about their profession and applying the knowledge of these factors to the recruitment process. Specifically, this study looked at the following questions: 1. What are the current factors that influence the selection of communication sciences and disorders as a major? 2. Was there a particular person influencing the decision to major in communication sciences and disorders? 3. What prompted students to enter into their …

Gradient Effects Of Reading Ability On Talker-Specific Perceptual Learning, Shayna R. Marmon

Master's Theses

Abstract

The acoustic signal of speech is a complex signal that simultaneously cues the linguistic content of a talker’s message and the identity of the talker. Traditional models of speech perception proposed that the properties of the acoustic signal that cue linguistic meaning and talker identify were distinct. However, a growing body of evidence challenges this traditional view, indicating that linguistic and talker-specific phonetic information are tightly linked in language comprehension. One of these benefits is increased intelligibility of the spoken message when listening to a familiar talker compared to an unfamiliar talker. Just as experience with a talker’s voice …

Theory Of Mind Without A Language Model: Effects Of Social Experience, Education And Language Exposure, Deanna L. Gagne

Master's Theses

Theory of Mind (ToM) abilities, i.e., the understanding that others’ internal states differ from one’s own, and that these states guide behavior, are multiply determined. ToM abilities underlie later social and pragmatic abilities, grossly affecting later life experiences, particularly for deaf children. However, previous studies have not clearly identified the effects of language, hearing status, or other exogenous factors, such as education or executive function abilities, on ToM development. To disentangle these, we studied three understudied populations in Nicaragua: Homesigners, who have not acquired a conventional language but have developed gestural communication systems; users of Nicaraguan Sign Language, an emerging …

Machiavelli And Ariosto: Language, Power, And The War Of Words, Rosanne H. Pelletier

Master's Theses

Machiavelli and Ariosto, the two contemporary giants and ideological opposites of the Italian Renaissance, diverge on the realm of power’s operation. For Machiavelli, power operates within society; here, one wields power over, or else cedes it to, others. By contrast, for Ariosto the locus of power is one’s own mind, where mighty forces swirl and sometimes overtake the individual from within. Whereas in Machiavelli’s view, power is asserted over others, the Ariostan view posits dizzying internal passions over which the individual is often powerless.

Against such a background, I anatomize two sets of linguistic details, and show that they in …